A CID team raided the house of a fish trader at a village in Gazole of Malda district on Sunday and recovered over Rs 1.3 crore in cash.

Joyprakash Saha, the trader, was arrested, and taken to Gazole police station for interrogation.

Around 10.30am, a 10-member CID team led by Anish Sarkar, a special superintendent, reached Ghakshol, a village near Gazole toll plaza off NH12, and raided Saha’s house.

“We had information that cash earned illegally through sale of drugs, especially cough syrups, was kept at his house. Accordingly, we raided his home and recovered cash. He was arrested and a case filed against him. Our probe is on,” Sarkar said.

The sleuths found currency notes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 in different rooms of Saha’s house. After the cash was assembled in one place, the team sought a counting machine. An employee from the local branch of a nationalised bank arrived at the site with a counting machine.

Around 5pm, after seven hours, the CID team said it recovered Rs 1,39,03,000.

The sum left Saha’s neighbours stumped. “We had no idea that Saha was involved in any wrongdoing,” said one.

“He would take ponds and swamps on lease, harvest different varieties of fish and sell those to wholesale fish traders. We had no inkling that he was into such illegal activities,” said a villager.

Sources said that around three months back, Om Gupta, a resident of Gangarampur in the neighbouring district of South Dinajpur, was arrested.

Gupta, who is Saha’s relative, used to run a racket of smuggling cough syrups to Bangladesh.

“It might be Om Gupta’s cash but it would take time to find out the truth. The CID is also trying to find out whether Saha had merely kept the money or was also involved in the smuggling racket,” said a source.